Sanctions against Iran: War and Containment

While completing a general assessment of the fourth round of internationalsanctions imposed against the islamic republic of iran, this paper assumesthat even if the sanctions successfully target the country’s economic sector,they will not reach their main objective, which is to suspend the iranian nuclear energy program within the timetable desired by the west. based onsuch an assumption, the alternative to sanctions is war (with different aimsand various degrees of intensity) or containment. in this review, it will beindicated that as war is rejected during the period in question, u.s. policy in the last three decades, i.e. containment through dexterity and with newerdimensions, will continue and severe sanctions will be used as the mainelement of containment. this paper includes sanctions, containment andwar as three fundamental concepts. as sanctions are futile in stopping theiranian nuclear program, the questions then are why and how washington isstepping up sanctions within the framework of its containment policyalongside talk of war? the hypothesis is that the talk of war as a means to support diplomacy will remain as the main pillar of u.s. containment policy.